"In the Middle Ages, the Kennet was navigable up to Reading by reasonable sized boats. Smaller boats could go beyond, and also use the network of small streams that ran through the lower part of Reading. These were used to transport cloth between the workshops, the dyeing grounds and the fulling mills. Many of these streams have long since been filled in or have become drainage channels." From Link

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.......................PANIC SLOWLY...............

"Panic Slowly" is the motto of the Canal Taverners Boat Club who meet in the Canal Tavern at Bradford on Avon.

Junction with River Thames

This is the point where the Kennet joins the Thames. Go under horseshoe bridge, seen attached to the railway bridge, and this is effectively the start of the Kennet and Avon Canal, although the river has Thames jurisdiction for the first mile.

A plaque on the listed bridge indicates the bridge was built in 1839-1840 by Isambard Kingdom Brunel taking the Great Western railway over the River Kennet. A FGW Turbo DMU passes over the bridge when the photo was taken.

Blakes Lock

A redundant part of Reading's sewage pumping station, opened in 1873 to transfer sewage to a treatment works outside the town. Some of the later pumps and turbines are on display, now as part of the Riverside Museum Link . The building projects out into the River Kennet - the exterior is shown here SU7273 : Blake's Lock pumping station .The turbines used the flow of the river Kennet to generate power - the bulk of the machinery was below the floor. In the 1950s they were superseded by electric pumps housed in an adjacent building, still operated by Thames Water (Information from board in museum).The Turbine and Pump House is a grade II listed building - for architectural information see Link .

Blakes Lock Reading
Strictly speaking this is the eastern end of the Kennet Navigation. Blakes Lock is the only lock maintained by Thames Conservancy which is not actually on the River Thames. A short term licence for passage of the Thames can be purchased here if required. A seven day licence should be sufficient for most boaters to travel south to Brentford to join the Grand Union Canal with a foray onto the River Wey at Weybridge, or a trip upstream to head of navigation at Lechlade and return to Oxford for the Oxford Canal. by MEP

One of the hand-operated paddle wheels on Blakes Lock. Although on the River Kennet, this is a Thames Lock, the only one not actually on the Thames, as the Thames jurisdiction continues up the Kennet for another half a mile. The lock has a fall of 3'4" and the hand paddles are very easy and intuitive to use (red the paddle is up, white it is down) although there is usually a Lock keeper.

Part of Reading museum houses a waterway section in a former pump house to the right. The rest of the building, and the floating barge in the foreground, is now a restaurant, one of "Bel and the Dragon" chain. There are convenient narrowboat and cruiser moorings. Behind, the former Alder Valley bus depot site now has many new apartments.

The steerer and mate of Hadar proudly display her at Reading Waterfest. The boat is a replica of a traditional Grand Union Canal Carrying boat, with detail right down to the number, 48, which would have been the correct number in the original 1930s alphabetical sequence of names.She was built in 2007 but has an engine of the correct vintage.Modern flats and offices now overlook the original line of the River Kennet.

Riverside flats on the former Huntley and Palmers biscuit works site.Tried to find out who Harry Tee is/was but rapidly lost interest.Googling anything with Harry + Reading inevitably leads you to stuff about reading Harry Potter.Update from Graham Horn:- Comment: Des. Harry Tee was Chief Executive of Reading Borough Council from 1967 to 1988. For that period he was effectively Mr.Reading, his word was law, you did not mess with Mr. Tee. Graham. Thanks for that. DB

Most of Reading Waterfest occurs in the next square east, but the ducks for the duck race are set off along the Holybrook so that they gain enough momentum. Here the leaders are leaving the Holybrook and entering the main stream of the River Kennet. Some ducks can get quite nervous about entering this much larger river and the swimming order can change considerably.

The western end of the waterfest site lies just in this grid square; most activity can be seen in SU7273 to the east. Here one of the narrowboats in the boat parade is turning off the original line of the River Kennet back onto the new line.Behind is one of the buildings of Prudential, a major Reading employer.

This is a weir though no gates are involved. On this one there are rather large buoys chained together to stop boats from going over it. Getting here was a task on its own as the whole area was a sheet of ice.

by Bill Nicholls

2009It is necessary for boaters to stop under the bridge to operate the lock, any boater who misses the landing will probably be carried onto the boom before going over the weir with his boat if lucky, an unfortunate fate either way as he will probably need to be hauled off, I believe the local fire brigade has had plenty of practice.

The narrowboat is heading left into County Lock the first British Waterways lock on the Kennet. It bypasses County Weir. Although the fall on the weir seems shallow (often only a few inches), this forms an important function in helping to regulate the water flowing through Reading. The whole of the Kennet catchment comes through here and in winter conditions the water level here can be a metre higher. In the background is the Inner Distribution Road (IDR) which is just in SU7172

by Graham Horn

1998
[image id=321860 text=County Lock Reading
As soon as he leaves County Lock going downstream the boater enters a section of river which ran through the former Simmonds Brewery and was known as "Brewery Gut". Now surrounded by a shopping centre and places of entertainment. The river is narrow and runs quickly here even when water levels are normal, the bends, and there are many, come fast and furious with little warning. A bit like going down the Cresta Run but more exciting, there is no possibility of anything coming the other way on the Cresta Run*. Another thing, you need to be travelling about four mph faster than the current to maintain steerage way. No place for the timid, foolhardy yes, timid no. The best is saved til last, High Bridge! It is not high (you need to duck) and the sides slope down to the waters edge giving a navigable width in the middle of about 20 feet, much less when there is plenty of fresh** in river. The author, being young and foolish at the time of his first passage, a mere stripling only a year after retirement, went through early in the year when there was quite a lot of "fresh" and managed with only a very minor scrape under High Bridge.
by MEP

Passage in both directions through Brewery Gut is controlled by traffic lights, but some boaters don't know what they are for and ignore them.